Richard McCarthy is an investment expert based in Scarborough, Maine. He concurrently serves as the chief financial officer of Avery Investments in Portland and DLTC Healthcare in Rockport, Maine. Richard McCarthy focuses on growing markets of smaller cities and businesses moving to new cities to add workforce, and he loves gardening for fun.

A disease outbreak in your garden can render it useless. However, there are practical steps you can take to ensure that this is not the case, one of which is buying only healthy plants. Before buying any plant, examine it thoroughly to avoid inadvertently introducing damaged plants with diseases in your garden. Identifying unhealthy plants on your own may be difficult, especially if you're new to gardening. Still, plant books and websites can show clear pictures of healthy specimens.

A healthy plant must have a firm root; therefore, ask the seller to remove the plant from the pot so that you can give a close look. A healthy root is usually white and firm with a spaced root ball (the mass of the root under the plant stem). A dark and soft root indicates it is unhealthy. Lastly, don't buy plants with rotted stems or dead spots.